WORCESTER, Mass. - Raising two grandchildren is hard enough. But feeding them is a different story. Just ask Kathy McCann.

“As they’re getting bigger, and it seems to be by the day, they’re eating me out of house and home,” McCann said. 

McCann and her grandchildren are among the families benefitting from the Worcester Regional Food Hub’s weekly milk donation at the Boys & Girls Club of Worcester.

The Food Hub received a Massachusetts dairy promotion grant, allowing them to share locally produced dairy products with food insecure students and their families.

“I’m a single grandmother raising both of my grandkids,” McCann said. “So, it helps out immensely.”

McCann isn’t alone. The Boys & Girls Club of Worcester serve around 250 families a week.

“Providing them with food pantry service, everything from food baskets to a backpack food program for our kids over the weekends,” said Liz Hamilton, Executive Director of the Boys & Girls Club of Worcester.

Every Wednesday, for the next four and a half months, the Food Hub will donate $500 worth of milk.

Glenn Despres was in the back of the truck handing out milk this week.

“A lot of families are struggling to get food,” Despres said. “People are working, they don’t always have time. The kids aren’t always being fed with local food or good food.”

Hamilton said the pandemic has created even more challenges for the families at the club.

“It’s sometimes very hard to be able to afford the cost of milk,” Hamilton said. “It’s something they won’t have to worry about.”

The milk comes from local producers, so the program serves both families and local businesses.

“If you can buy local food, then that helps prop up the local growers that are growing and making the food,” Despres said.

McCann says it will allow her to provide better alternatives to her grandkids.

“I try to keep them away from the junk,” McCann said.